Rockport gets in step with Google Wallet

Typing in a 16-digit card number along with a billing and shipping address onto a smartphone screen is enough to deter many consumers from making purchases via mobile phone. To make sure purchases easier, shoe manufacturer and retailer Rockport has added Google Wallet as a payment option on its mobile commerce site.

Google Inc.’s Google Wallet, formerly known as Google Checkout, is an expedited way to pay. Once consumers create a Google Wallet account and store there their payment card details and billing and shipping addresses, they can tap the Google Wallet button on m-commerce sites to pay.

Upon tapping the button a new web page opens where the consumer can log into his Google Wallet account. From there, he selects the payment card and confirms the shipping and billing address. Then the original checkout page on the Rockport m-commerce site reappears and the consumer confirms the purchase.

“This new tool from Google Wallet means our customers can more quickly and easily complete a mobile purchase,” says Kimberly Correia Hunt, Rockport director of global e-commerce. Rockport expects Google Wallet to increase its mobile conversion rate by 50%, attract new customers to the m-commerce site and reduce the number of abandoned shopping carts on the mobile site. Rockport’s estimated mobile conversion rate is 1.20%, according to the Internet Retailer Mobile 400 guide.

For a limited time consumers using Google Wallet at Rockport’s m-commerce also receive $20 off their orders. Other m-commerce sites using the service include 1-800-Flowers.com and FiveGuys.com, Google says. Google would not disclose the number or value of transactions made with the service.

Google Wallet also is available for e-commerce purchases and in a tap-and-go method for smartphones equipped with the Google Wallet app when used at participating bricks-and-mortar merchants.